SweetGigi
I am the exception
- Joined
- Apr 11, 2007
- Posts
- 1,805
For those of you who love goth or love people who love goth, this thread is a dedication and a deposit for photos, thoughts, advice and stories. Come share yourselves here everyone... or take in what is shared. 
Just as a thought, I'm gonna post part of an article here about the History of Goth by Hans D. This article was first published in 1998 in his webzine Funeral Procession. I hope you guys enjoy it.
The History of Goth
Part I: Some Origins
What is gothic? This question can of course not be answered in one sentence. It's clear that gothic is not only about music, it's a lifestyle, a certain sensibility. According to the Collins Cobuild English Language Dictonary, the word "gothic" is used in three ways. First of all, 'a building such as a cathedral that is gothic has a style of architecture that is distinguished by tall pillars, high vaulted ceilings and pointed arches.' Furthermore, 'gothic is used to describe stories in which strange, mysterious adventures happen in dark and lonely places such as the ruins of a castle.' Gothic is also 'a style of printing or writing in which the letters are very ornate.' On this website, I use gothic mainly as a collective noun to describe a subculture, with many related musical styles, from gothic to industrial, from electro to dark folk. But let me first start with some origins.
The word 'gothic' is very old, and was used from the Renaissance on to signify the art style of the Middle Ages. It was named after the German tribe of the Goths, who once had invaded Italy and so had broken up the Roman Empire. In the 15th century, man hoped to revive the classical age, they had the idea of a rebirth or renaissance. The intervening period was called a Middle Age, and we still use this negative term. Because the Italians blamed the Goths for destructing the Roman Empire, they called the art style of this period Gothic, by which they meant barbaric. Of course this was a black & white view, during the Middle Age beautiful art was made too and there wasn´t a sudden rebirth of all the classical achievements in the Renaissance. And what to think of the technical inventions in architecture in the Middle Age, which made the huge Gothic cathedrals possible, like the Notre-Dame.
But there was more than architecture: "Contrary to popular perception, Gothic style refers to more than cathedral structures. The label applies to art, sculpture, glass works, decorative pieces and illuminated manuscripts from the mid 12th through the early 16th century" (Earthlore Explorations: Gothic Dreams). Religion played an important role in Gothic art, painters and sculptors for instance were less interested in depicting their subjects in a realistic way than in spreading a religious feel. Anyhow, it is clear that the word gothic originally has negative connotations, invented by the people of the Renaissance, who wanted to distinguish themselves from it.
During the Romantic Movement, around 1800, many people felt attracted to the past and a revival of gothic and medieval things came into fashion. Romanticism emerged as a reaction to the rationalism of the Enlightenment. Emotive, nonrational aspects were central to the movement, and the creative power of the individual. Romantics wanted to escape from the concrete historical situation. They used various ways to achieve that goal: some looked back to the medieval past, some sought it in religion or the supernatural, others tried to find it in Nature. During the Romantic period gothic became associated with the dark, the strange, the bizarre. Many symbols and themes in Romantic art have remarkable similarities wih the present gothic subculture. Romantic and Decadent writers like Byron, Shelley, Baudelaire and Verlaine were interested in the darker realms of human conscience and experience. Sexual obsessions played an important role in Romantic literature, books of that period contain many femmes fatales ("la belle dame sans merci") and various sinful agonies of delight. To learn about the Romantic erotic sensibility, I advise the classic study The Romantic Agony by Mario Praz. The Romantic spirit was also clear in the visual arts. Painters like Caspar David Friedrich had a preference for dark, desolate landscapes. In architecture, a neo-gothic style was fashionable in the nineteenth century. Especially churches were build with gothic facades, to remind of the Age of Faith.
An example of the taste for the dark and the bizarre is the Gothic Novel, which became fashionable in the 1800's. It confronted the darker, shadowy side of the self. It also challenged accepted social and intellectual structures of the time. Gothic literature existed of a complex mixture of terror, horror and the mysterious, with action situated in out-of-the-ordinary settings. A typical character in Gothic fiction is the vampire. Examples of gothic literature are Mary Shelley´s Frankenstein, the work of Edgar Allan Poe and of course Bram Stoker´s Dracula. Stoker took the rather vague and contradictory picture of the vampire that had emerged from the nineteenth-century literature and earlier times and developed a fascinating, satisfying, and powerful character whose vampiric life assumed mythic status in popular culture. Contemporary authors who write in that tradition are Anne Rice ("Interview with the Vampire", with her major vampire character Lestat de Lioncourt) and Poppy Z. Brite (especially "Lost Souls").
Part II: British Developments
During the 1980's a new gothic movement came to the surface. It was preceded by punk, which came into life at the end of the 70's when there was a need for a distinctive non-conformist alternative culture. Maybe gothic came as a sort of reaction against punk, at the same time a group of people seemed to share certain needs and tastes. According to The Vampire Book; the Encyclopedia of the Undead: "Gothic music, as all counter-cultural forms, articulated an explicit nonconformist stance vis-a-vis the dominant esthablishment. It opposed narrow sexual mores and traditional established religions. (..) The music celebrated the dark, shadowy side of life and had a distinct fascination with death. Its slow, driving sound was frequently described as melancholy, gloomy, even morbid. Those enthralled by the new gothic culture found the vampire the single most appropriate image for the movement".
According to J. Gunn in his article "Bela Lugosi´s Dead; On gothic music and the inevitability of genre", there were obvious links between the new gothic movement and 19th-century Romanticism: "Lyrically, themes of death, destruction and explorations of darkness are common among gothic artists, as well as romantic themes of love and loss found in the gothic novels of the literary movement. The music, despite the addition of electronic sounds and dance-beats as the genre has evolved to present, continues to emphasize minor chords, sparse, minimalist rhythms, and slower tempos characteristic of an recognizable "eerie" or "gloomy" texture. Visually, gothic artists and fans seem to promote a death-like aesthetic that, para-musically, abides the dark timbre: pale white faces, black clothing, victorian-styled fashions such as corstes or ruffled shirts, medieval ruins and gothic architecture and so on."
It's hard to give an exact date of birth of gothic. At the end of 70's many new groups emerged with a somewhat dark sound and/or image. To name but a few: The Cure, Siouxsie and the Banshees, The Damned, Adam & the Ants, Ultravox, Killing Joke, The Sound, the Comsat Angels and Joy Division.Their New Wave or dark pop music had a lot of influence on people who would later call themselves gothic. Perhaps the first real goth anthem was `Bela Lugosi's dead' by Bauhaus. The story goes that gothic originated from the London club the Batcave, but when this club opened in 1981, gothic already was well on its way. But the bands that performed there, like the Virgin Prunes and Alien Sex Fiend with their horror image, helped to spread the movement.
Someone who wrote a lot about the history of the early (British) gothic movement was the journalist Mick Mercer (writer of 'The Goth Bible'). He tries to explain the attraction of gothic (in a series of articles for the German Zillo Magazine in 1995): "Heutzutage ist offensichtlich, weshalb Goth intelligente Menschen anspricht, und weshalb er als Szene weiterhin blüht: weil Leute auch durch andere Dinge als nur durch Musik auf diese Bewegung stößen können. Filme, Literatur, Kunst, Dichtung, Mode spielen alle ihre Rolle beim anlocken der Menschen." (in short: It is clear why intelligent people are attracted to goth: it´s not only about music, film, literature, art, poetry and fashion play a part as well)
One of the first popular gothic bands in England was UK Decay, now not so well-known any more. In the same Zillo-article: "Es war diese Band gewesen, der das Etikett 'Goth' aufgedrückt wurde, und ihre Artwork basierte natürlich auf der inzwischen stereotypisierten Bilderwelt von Tod, Grabsteinen und Vampirismus. Das hatte ursprünglich in Fanzines begonnen, die aus Horror-Magazinen ausschnitten, was immer sie brauchten, um ihre Seiten lebendiger zu machen. (..) Mit dem Tod zusammenhangende Illustrationen waren es gewesen, weil das einfach cool war. Von da ausgehend entwickelte sich die Bilderwelt, die seitdem den Goth dominiert, und es hat alles mit den Fanzines angefangen!"
(In short: Uk Decay was labeled goth, their artwork showed imagery of death and vampires, which became stereotypes and whch originated from horror magazines) In the mid 80's gothic reached its height with the succes of bands like The Sisters of Mercy, The Mission and Fields of the Nephilim. Their gothic rock and image became the standard form of gothic for years (and maybe still is in Britain). Alice, Laura, Temple of Love, Tower of Strenght, For Her Light and Garden of Delight have become absolute classics. A problem was though that many later groups had difficulties to create their own sound, they tended to copy their idols too much. In England this type of gothic still is very popular, at dance parties a lot of old-style gothic is still being played and can be heard for example at the annual Whitby festival. Lots of contemporary English goth groups (e.g. Midnight Configuration, Inkubus Sukkubus, Rosetta Stone), can be found on 'The Hex Files' samplers, compiled by the aforementioned Mick Mercer.
But there were bands that were popular in the 80´s goth scene that followed other musical lines. Best example is Dead can Dance, whose self-titled debut is a typical goth album, but later releases have a more ethereal sound, with influences ranging from the medieval to the oriental. They have reached a broader audience in later years, but have split up recently. The Cocteau Twins, also of the 4AD label were even more ethereal. And the Dutch formation (Clan of) Xymox, who recently made a successful comeback, made people dance on tunes like Stranger and A Day, with a melancholy electronic sound.
Part III: EBM, Industrial, Dark Wave
But England wasn't the only place where `dark' music was being made. The Swans for example, originating from the New York avant-garde scene, made some great albums, like Children of God, White Light from The Mouth of Infinity and The Burning World. Only recently their career ended, but Michael Gira and Jarboe continue to make fascinating music. Another legendary band is Christian Death, perhaps the best known US goth band. They are still active, making numerous, often controversial albums, with a lot of B-movie and sexual themes. Most recommended are Only Theatre of Pain and Catastrophe Ballet. Contemporary American goth bands are for instance Faith & the Muse and London after Midnight.
Now that we have left Great Britain it is time to look at gothic in a broader sense. Because the music that is appreciated nowadays does not all lead back to the British goths. Take for instance more electronic based styles. Belgium was the founding father of Electronic Body Music (EBM), with cold, dark, rather minimal electronic sounds. Influences are electronic bands that started in the 70´s like Kraftwerk and Cabaret Voltaire. In the early 80´s a Neue Deutsche Welle brought DAF (Der Mussolini) and Die Krupps. But the real founders of EBM are Front 242, who became really succesful with their minimalistic beats, cold sounds, and militaristic commando outfit. Hits like No Shuffle, Headhunter and Tyranny for you still bring people to the dancefloor. The Klinik, Insekt, Dive, Click Click, A Split Second and later Suicide Commando are other big names here. Dive, the band of Dirk Ivens, formally the Klinik and also active with the noise project Sonar, still knows how to create a cold atmosphere, and Johan van Roy's Suicide Commando has had some dancefloor smashers like See you in hell and Desire.
In the U.S. and Canada they spoke of Industrial. The electronic heroes here were/are Front Line Assembly (with side-projects like Delerium and Synaesthesia) and the Canadian Skinny Puppy (also with various other projects). Both bands make pretty complex music, with many layers of sound, which is very suitable to hear with headphones on. FLA is easier to listen to, and easier to dance to. Classic albums are Caustic Grip (1990) and Tactical Neural Implant (1992), which should be in everyone´s EBM collection. Live concerts of FLA are very energetic. Skinny Puppy is less accesible, but made some dancefloor classics though, like Assimilate and Smothered Hope, compiled on the 12" Anthology. Most albums of Cevin Key and friends though, like Last Rights, are pretty hard to digest. Apart from these two giants some industrial bands rose to fame which used more guitar sounds in their music, like Ministry or NIN. Some less commercial varieties of these crossover style, like Godflesh, can be found on the Earache label. There are many contemporary American electro bands, like the popular Velvet Acid Christ, and for some reason their sound differs from European electro, most of the times American electro for instance has more (sampled) guitar sounds. A good introduction to U.S. electro is the 4 cd-box There is no Time (Ras DVA label).
So far we haven't spoken about Germany, where perhaps the biggest gothic scene can be found nowadays, as you can see at the yearly Wave Gotik Treffen in Leipzig. In the 80's Germany got its own succesful acts. For many German bands the label Dark Wave can be used. One of the first German acts in the gothic scene was Project Pitchfork, still a popular formation, although their style has changed a bit. A classic album is their debut Dhyani, which contains the typical dark vocals and critical lyrics of frontman Peter Spilles, combined with the dark technoid sounds which make Pitchfork suitable for the dancefloors. Another top act is Deine Lakaien, who nowadays even achieve chart succes in Germany. These skilled musicians make beautiful romantic songs like 'Love me to the end'. Alexander Veljanov is responsible fot the emotional vocals, musical masterminds Ernst Horn and Michael Popp also have succes with the medieval ensemble Qntal. Oh, and not to forget Sopor Aeternus (with the tragic he/she figure of Varney), whose first album was very dark but later work is a bit lighter, with some medieval influences. Song titles like Tanz der Grausamkeit and Im Garten des Nichts say it all, it is not such a happy view of life that is proclaimed here, not to speak of the album title Todeswunsch, a beautiful album though. There also emerged a whole bunch of German groups who began to sing in their own language. A good example is Goethes Erben, the band name says it all. Especially their first three albums, a trilogy, are recommended. During live shows they are at their best, with the theatrical entertainer Oswald Henke. Both Lacrimosa, with the romantic spirit Tilo Wolf, and Umbra et Imago, with the anthem Gothic Erotic from their debut Infantile Spiele are nowadays taking the metal path. Of course we have to mention Das Ich, their classic album is `Die Propheten'. They make long, complicated tracks, like Kain und Abel, to which Stefan Ackermann adds his intellectual lyrics. The dark electro band Calva y Nada have texts in both German and Spanish (!), sung with the instant recognizable low voice of Brenal. Der Prager Handgriff sound a bit similar, but their texts are mostly about political and social issues, an exception in the gothic world.
Many German bands have a somewhat Romantic mood in their music. Some good examples are Wolfsheim, Silke Bisschoff, Illuminate and Diary of Dreams. A label based in Liechtenstein which has obtained a lot of succes lately is M.O.S., with some great romantic bands like Weltenbrand and Die Verbannten Kinder Evas. They also release the work of L'Ame Immortelle, who combine romantic poppy songs with dark electro tracks.
From the end of the 80's on many good electro (a modern name for EBM) bands emerged, like Mentallo & the Fixer, X Marks the Pedwalk, the dark Leatherstrip (from Sweden), the even darker Yelworc, the list could go on and on. The big acts at the moment are :wumpscut:, who has made some powerful classics (like Black Death and Soylent Green) in a short time, and Terminal Choice (with side projects Seelenkrank and Tumor) with a very dark sound and image and the master song `Totes Fleisch'. This type of danceable electronic music is also sometimes called 'dark techno'. Other recent popular (and very danceable) electro bands are Covenant, Apoptygma Bezerk and Evils Toy. Intelligent Electro with techno/trance influences is made by the likes of Haujobb and Abscess. Typical electro/EBM labels are Zoth Ommog and Offbeat.
A lighter form of electro, both in musical style as in image, is Synthpop. It originates from the New Romantics of the early 80´s, the decadent scene influenced by glamrock, with synthesizers as their main instrument. Some hits of that time are 'Tainted Love' by Soft Cell, 'Vienna' from Ultravox, Gary Numans 'Are Friends Electric', 'Fade to Grey' from Visage and 'Eisbaer' by Grauzone. Hits like these can be found on the New Wave Club Classix compilation series. Examples of more commercial Romantics were Spandau Ballet, Duran Duran and the Human League. The last few years various new bands emerged which seem to take over this heritage. The biggest influence on these newcomers must be Depeche Mode. Some labels specialized in Synthpop are October Records, Visage Records and Energy Records. Some bands are And One, Infam, Elegant Machinery, S.P.O.C.K., Mesh and De/Vision, who all make catchy tunes with smooth synths and soft melodies. Perhaps Wolfsheim belongs to this list as well, but this popular German formation stands out for making intelligent and emotional music.
Just as a thought, I'm gonna post part of an article here about the History of Goth by Hans D. This article was first published in 1998 in his webzine Funeral Procession. I hope you guys enjoy it.
The History of Goth
Part I: Some Origins
What is gothic? This question can of course not be answered in one sentence. It's clear that gothic is not only about music, it's a lifestyle, a certain sensibility. According to the Collins Cobuild English Language Dictonary, the word "gothic" is used in three ways. First of all, 'a building such as a cathedral that is gothic has a style of architecture that is distinguished by tall pillars, high vaulted ceilings and pointed arches.' Furthermore, 'gothic is used to describe stories in which strange, mysterious adventures happen in dark and lonely places such as the ruins of a castle.' Gothic is also 'a style of printing or writing in which the letters are very ornate.' On this website, I use gothic mainly as a collective noun to describe a subculture, with many related musical styles, from gothic to industrial, from electro to dark folk. But let me first start with some origins.
The word 'gothic' is very old, and was used from the Renaissance on to signify the art style of the Middle Ages. It was named after the German tribe of the Goths, who once had invaded Italy and so had broken up the Roman Empire. In the 15th century, man hoped to revive the classical age, they had the idea of a rebirth or renaissance. The intervening period was called a Middle Age, and we still use this negative term. Because the Italians blamed the Goths for destructing the Roman Empire, they called the art style of this period Gothic, by which they meant barbaric. Of course this was a black & white view, during the Middle Age beautiful art was made too and there wasn´t a sudden rebirth of all the classical achievements in the Renaissance. And what to think of the technical inventions in architecture in the Middle Age, which made the huge Gothic cathedrals possible, like the Notre-Dame.
But there was more than architecture: "Contrary to popular perception, Gothic style refers to more than cathedral structures. The label applies to art, sculpture, glass works, decorative pieces and illuminated manuscripts from the mid 12th through the early 16th century" (Earthlore Explorations: Gothic Dreams). Religion played an important role in Gothic art, painters and sculptors for instance were less interested in depicting their subjects in a realistic way than in spreading a religious feel. Anyhow, it is clear that the word gothic originally has negative connotations, invented by the people of the Renaissance, who wanted to distinguish themselves from it.
During the Romantic Movement, around 1800, many people felt attracted to the past and a revival of gothic and medieval things came into fashion. Romanticism emerged as a reaction to the rationalism of the Enlightenment. Emotive, nonrational aspects were central to the movement, and the creative power of the individual. Romantics wanted to escape from the concrete historical situation. They used various ways to achieve that goal: some looked back to the medieval past, some sought it in religion or the supernatural, others tried to find it in Nature. During the Romantic period gothic became associated with the dark, the strange, the bizarre. Many symbols and themes in Romantic art have remarkable similarities wih the present gothic subculture. Romantic and Decadent writers like Byron, Shelley, Baudelaire and Verlaine were interested in the darker realms of human conscience and experience. Sexual obsessions played an important role in Romantic literature, books of that period contain many femmes fatales ("la belle dame sans merci") and various sinful agonies of delight. To learn about the Romantic erotic sensibility, I advise the classic study The Romantic Agony by Mario Praz. The Romantic spirit was also clear in the visual arts. Painters like Caspar David Friedrich had a preference for dark, desolate landscapes. In architecture, a neo-gothic style was fashionable in the nineteenth century. Especially churches were build with gothic facades, to remind of the Age of Faith.
An example of the taste for the dark and the bizarre is the Gothic Novel, which became fashionable in the 1800's. It confronted the darker, shadowy side of the self. It also challenged accepted social and intellectual structures of the time. Gothic literature existed of a complex mixture of terror, horror and the mysterious, with action situated in out-of-the-ordinary settings. A typical character in Gothic fiction is the vampire. Examples of gothic literature are Mary Shelley´s Frankenstein, the work of Edgar Allan Poe and of course Bram Stoker´s Dracula. Stoker took the rather vague and contradictory picture of the vampire that had emerged from the nineteenth-century literature and earlier times and developed a fascinating, satisfying, and powerful character whose vampiric life assumed mythic status in popular culture. Contemporary authors who write in that tradition are Anne Rice ("Interview with the Vampire", with her major vampire character Lestat de Lioncourt) and Poppy Z. Brite (especially "Lost Souls").
Part II: British Developments
During the 1980's a new gothic movement came to the surface. It was preceded by punk, which came into life at the end of the 70's when there was a need for a distinctive non-conformist alternative culture. Maybe gothic came as a sort of reaction against punk, at the same time a group of people seemed to share certain needs and tastes. According to The Vampire Book; the Encyclopedia of the Undead: "Gothic music, as all counter-cultural forms, articulated an explicit nonconformist stance vis-a-vis the dominant esthablishment. It opposed narrow sexual mores and traditional established religions. (..) The music celebrated the dark, shadowy side of life and had a distinct fascination with death. Its slow, driving sound was frequently described as melancholy, gloomy, even morbid. Those enthralled by the new gothic culture found the vampire the single most appropriate image for the movement".
According to J. Gunn in his article "Bela Lugosi´s Dead; On gothic music and the inevitability of genre", there were obvious links between the new gothic movement and 19th-century Romanticism: "Lyrically, themes of death, destruction and explorations of darkness are common among gothic artists, as well as romantic themes of love and loss found in the gothic novels of the literary movement. The music, despite the addition of electronic sounds and dance-beats as the genre has evolved to present, continues to emphasize minor chords, sparse, minimalist rhythms, and slower tempos characteristic of an recognizable "eerie" or "gloomy" texture. Visually, gothic artists and fans seem to promote a death-like aesthetic that, para-musically, abides the dark timbre: pale white faces, black clothing, victorian-styled fashions such as corstes or ruffled shirts, medieval ruins and gothic architecture and so on."
It's hard to give an exact date of birth of gothic. At the end of 70's many new groups emerged with a somewhat dark sound and/or image. To name but a few: The Cure, Siouxsie and the Banshees, The Damned, Adam & the Ants, Ultravox, Killing Joke, The Sound, the Comsat Angels and Joy Division.Their New Wave or dark pop music had a lot of influence on people who would later call themselves gothic. Perhaps the first real goth anthem was `Bela Lugosi's dead' by Bauhaus. The story goes that gothic originated from the London club the Batcave, but when this club opened in 1981, gothic already was well on its way. But the bands that performed there, like the Virgin Prunes and Alien Sex Fiend with their horror image, helped to spread the movement.
Someone who wrote a lot about the history of the early (British) gothic movement was the journalist Mick Mercer (writer of 'The Goth Bible'). He tries to explain the attraction of gothic (in a series of articles for the German Zillo Magazine in 1995): "Heutzutage ist offensichtlich, weshalb Goth intelligente Menschen anspricht, und weshalb er als Szene weiterhin blüht: weil Leute auch durch andere Dinge als nur durch Musik auf diese Bewegung stößen können. Filme, Literatur, Kunst, Dichtung, Mode spielen alle ihre Rolle beim anlocken der Menschen." (in short: It is clear why intelligent people are attracted to goth: it´s not only about music, film, literature, art, poetry and fashion play a part as well)
One of the first popular gothic bands in England was UK Decay, now not so well-known any more. In the same Zillo-article: "Es war diese Band gewesen, der das Etikett 'Goth' aufgedrückt wurde, und ihre Artwork basierte natürlich auf der inzwischen stereotypisierten Bilderwelt von Tod, Grabsteinen und Vampirismus. Das hatte ursprünglich in Fanzines begonnen, die aus Horror-Magazinen ausschnitten, was immer sie brauchten, um ihre Seiten lebendiger zu machen. (..) Mit dem Tod zusammenhangende Illustrationen waren es gewesen, weil das einfach cool war. Von da ausgehend entwickelte sich die Bilderwelt, die seitdem den Goth dominiert, und es hat alles mit den Fanzines angefangen!"
(In short: Uk Decay was labeled goth, their artwork showed imagery of death and vampires, which became stereotypes and whch originated from horror magazines) In the mid 80's gothic reached its height with the succes of bands like The Sisters of Mercy, The Mission and Fields of the Nephilim. Their gothic rock and image became the standard form of gothic for years (and maybe still is in Britain). Alice, Laura, Temple of Love, Tower of Strenght, For Her Light and Garden of Delight have become absolute classics. A problem was though that many later groups had difficulties to create their own sound, they tended to copy their idols too much. In England this type of gothic still is very popular, at dance parties a lot of old-style gothic is still being played and can be heard for example at the annual Whitby festival. Lots of contemporary English goth groups (e.g. Midnight Configuration, Inkubus Sukkubus, Rosetta Stone), can be found on 'The Hex Files' samplers, compiled by the aforementioned Mick Mercer.
But there were bands that were popular in the 80´s goth scene that followed other musical lines. Best example is Dead can Dance, whose self-titled debut is a typical goth album, but later releases have a more ethereal sound, with influences ranging from the medieval to the oriental. They have reached a broader audience in later years, but have split up recently. The Cocteau Twins, also of the 4AD label were even more ethereal. And the Dutch formation (Clan of) Xymox, who recently made a successful comeback, made people dance on tunes like Stranger and A Day, with a melancholy electronic sound.
Part III: EBM, Industrial, Dark Wave
But England wasn't the only place where `dark' music was being made. The Swans for example, originating from the New York avant-garde scene, made some great albums, like Children of God, White Light from The Mouth of Infinity and The Burning World. Only recently their career ended, but Michael Gira and Jarboe continue to make fascinating music. Another legendary band is Christian Death, perhaps the best known US goth band. They are still active, making numerous, often controversial albums, with a lot of B-movie and sexual themes. Most recommended are Only Theatre of Pain and Catastrophe Ballet. Contemporary American goth bands are for instance Faith & the Muse and London after Midnight.
Now that we have left Great Britain it is time to look at gothic in a broader sense. Because the music that is appreciated nowadays does not all lead back to the British goths. Take for instance more electronic based styles. Belgium was the founding father of Electronic Body Music (EBM), with cold, dark, rather minimal electronic sounds. Influences are electronic bands that started in the 70´s like Kraftwerk and Cabaret Voltaire. In the early 80´s a Neue Deutsche Welle brought DAF (Der Mussolini) and Die Krupps. But the real founders of EBM are Front 242, who became really succesful with their minimalistic beats, cold sounds, and militaristic commando outfit. Hits like No Shuffle, Headhunter and Tyranny for you still bring people to the dancefloor. The Klinik, Insekt, Dive, Click Click, A Split Second and later Suicide Commando are other big names here. Dive, the band of Dirk Ivens, formally the Klinik and also active with the noise project Sonar, still knows how to create a cold atmosphere, and Johan van Roy's Suicide Commando has had some dancefloor smashers like See you in hell and Desire.
In the U.S. and Canada they spoke of Industrial. The electronic heroes here were/are Front Line Assembly (with side-projects like Delerium and Synaesthesia) and the Canadian Skinny Puppy (also with various other projects). Both bands make pretty complex music, with many layers of sound, which is very suitable to hear with headphones on. FLA is easier to listen to, and easier to dance to. Classic albums are Caustic Grip (1990) and Tactical Neural Implant (1992), which should be in everyone´s EBM collection. Live concerts of FLA are very energetic. Skinny Puppy is less accesible, but made some dancefloor classics though, like Assimilate and Smothered Hope, compiled on the 12" Anthology. Most albums of Cevin Key and friends though, like Last Rights, are pretty hard to digest. Apart from these two giants some industrial bands rose to fame which used more guitar sounds in their music, like Ministry or NIN. Some less commercial varieties of these crossover style, like Godflesh, can be found on the Earache label. There are many contemporary American electro bands, like the popular Velvet Acid Christ, and for some reason their sound differs from European electro, most of the times American electro for instance has more (sampled) guitar sounds. A good introduction to U.S. electro is the 4 cd-box There is no Time (Ras DVA label).
So far we haven't spoken about Germany, where perhaps the biggest gothic scene can be found nowadays, as you can see at the yearly Wave Gotik Treffen in Leipzig. In the 80's Germany got its own succesful acts. For many German bands the label Dark Wave can be used. One of the first German acts in the gothic scene was Project Pitchfork, still a popular formation, although their style has changed a bit. A classic album is their debut Dhyani, which contains the typical dark vocals and critical lyrics of frontman Peter Spilles, combined with the dark technoid sounds which make Pitchfork suitable for the dancefloors. Another top act is Deine Lakaien, who nowadays even achieve chart succes in Germany. These skilled musicians make beautiful romantic songs like 'Love me to the end'. Alexander Veljanov is responsible fot the emotional vocals, musical masterminds Ernst Horn and Michael Popp also have succes with the medieval ensemble Qntal. Oh, and not to forget Sopor Aeternus (with the tragic he/she figure of Varney), whose first album was very dark but later work is a bit lighter, with some medieval influences. Song titles like Tanz der Grausamkeit and Im Garten des Nichts say it all, it is not such a happy view of life that is proclaimed here, not to speak of the album title Todeswunsch, a beautiful album though. There also emerged a whole bunch of German groups who began to sing in their own language. A good example is Goethes Erben, the band name says it all. Especially their first three albums, a trilogy, are recommended. During live shows they are at their best, with the theatrical entertainer Oswald Henke. Both Lacrimosa, with the romantic spirit Tilo Wolf, and Umbra et Imago, with the anthem Gothic Erotic from their debut Infantile Spiele are nowadays taking the metal path. Of course we have to mention Das Ich, their classic album is `Die Propheten'. They make long, complicated tracks, like Kain und Abel, to which Stefan Ackermann adds his intellectual lyrics. The dark electro band Calva y Nada have texts in both German and Spanish (!), sung with the instant recognizable low voice of Brenal. Der Prager Handgriff sound a bit similar, but their texts are mostly about political and social issues, an exception in the gothic world.
Many German bands have a somewhat Romantic mood in their music. Some good examples are Wolfsheim, Silke Bisschoff, Illuminate and Diary of Dreams. A label based in Liechtenstein which has obtained a lot of succes lately is M.O.S., with some great romantic bands like Weltenbrand and Die Verbannten Kinder Evas. They also release the work of L'Ame Immortelle, who combine romantic poppy songs with dark electro tracks.
From the end of the 80's on many good electro (a modern name for EBM) bands emerged, like Mentallo & the Fixer, X Marks the Pedwalk, the dark Leatherstrip (from Sweden), the even darker Yelworc, the list could go on and on. The big acts at the moment are :wumpscut:, who has made some powerful classics (like Black Death and Soylent Green) in a short time, and Terminal Choice (with side projects Seelenkrank and Tumor) with a very dark sound and image and the master song `Totes Fleisch'. This type of danceable electronic music is also sometimes called 'dark techno'. Other recent popular (and very danceable) electro bands are Covenant, Apoptygma Bezerk and Evils Toy. Intelligent Electro with techno/trance influences is made by the likes of Haujobb and Abscess. Typical electro/EBM labels are Zoth Ommog and Offbeat.
A lighter form of electro, both in musical style as in image, is Synthpop. It originates from the New Romantics of the early 80´s, the decadent scene influenced by glamrock, with synthesizers as their main instrument. Some hits of that time are 'Tainted Love' by Soft Cell, 'Vienna' from Ultravox, Gary Numans 'Are Friends Electric', 'Fade to Grey' from Visage and 'Eisbaer' by Grauzone. Hits like these can be found on the New Wave Club Classix compilation series. Examples of more commercial Romantics were Spandau Ballet, Duran Duran and the Human League. The last few years various new bands emerged which seem to take over this heritage. The biggest influence on these newcomers must be Depeche Mode. Some labels specialized in Synthpop are October Records, Visage Records and Energy Records. Some bands are And One, Infam, Elegant Machinery, S.P.O.C.K., Mesh and De/Vision, who all make catchy tunes with smooth synths and soft melodies. Perhaps Wolfsheim belongs to this list as well, but this popular German formation stands out for making intelligent and emotional music.
Goth Girls"
Oh, and rebecca, she totally approves of my choice of future goth son in law and is amazed at how well I picked him given their many similarities....now to arrange that meeting and we can begin planning the wedding!...details, details!
